


Staying

by Browneyesparker



Series: Love Scenes [2]
Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Angst, Broadway, F/M, Romance, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-22 01:00:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browneyesparker/pseuds/Browneyesparker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on "And I am Telling You" from Dreamgirls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Staying

 

**“You can say what you want, I’m not walking out. Stop all the rivers, push, strike and kill, I’m not gonna leave you. ”**

**And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going, Dreamgirls_**

“Just go now,” Patrick Jane said as he stared out at the torrential downpour soaking the sandy beach, the tone of his voice was that of a defeated man. “I don’t have anything left to say to you right now.”

“Don’t send me away,” Teresa Lisbon replied, moving in a little closer and putting her arms around his waist from behind.

“Go,” he repeated, ignoring the way she held onto him like she was never going to let him go. “Red John is gone, we’re finished. We don’t have anything left now—”

“That’s not true!” She told him quietly as she tightened her grip and buried her face between his shoulder blades, silently praying that he’d understand she just couldn’t let him go.

Not with everything they’d shared the past decade.

Not when he had had a claim on her heart for almost as long as that.

“Please—” he repeated softly, stiffening slightly under her persistent touch. “Please just leave me alone.”

Lisbon pulled away and walked around him, so they were facing each other. She grabbed his shoulders and looked him directly in the eyes. “You can’t keep shutting me out, Patrick!”

Jane stared at her in disbelief. “What’s it going to take to get you to leave?”

_“Nothing!”_ she replied adamantly, not breaking their steady gaze for even a second. “There is nothing you can do or say that will make me leave.”

“Nothing, really?”

“Anything is game,” she answered. “Just _try_ and do your worse, it won’t make any difference. It’ll just make me want to stay with you more.”

Jane’s shoulders sagged slightly and Lisbon dropped her hands to her sides, turning to look out the window at the crashing waves.

“Why?” Jane asked quietly as he put a little more distance between them.

She glanced back at him. “Why what?”

“Why aren’t you going to leave me?”

Lisbon sighed and looked out the window again, avoiding his eyes so he wouldn’t be able to see right through her half-truths. “Because, you need me.”

When she turned around again, he had disappeared from the living room.

She didn’t see him again for the rest of the evening, and

“What if I never leave?” Jane asked the next morning, taking the seat next to her on the porch swing. “What if I decide to become a hermit and I chase trick-or-treaters off the porch with driftwood?”

“Then I’ll become a hermit too,” Lisbon answered, taking a sip of her coffee. “And I’ll make sure you always have candy for trick-or-treaters. Not driftwood.”

“What if I never speak to you ever again?”

“I’ll stay even then,” Lisbon said, taking a chance by reaching out and touching his hand. Daring to voice the truths she had concealed from him the day before. “Because staying with you, even in silence, would be better than having to live without you at all.”

For a moment in time, Jane’s world stopped. All he could hear were the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach and Lisbon’s perfect words. All he could feel was the way her hand fit perfectly in his, all he could see were her eyes pleading with him not to reject her.

He took a deep breath and continued on with his battery of _what ifs?_

What if he got drunk at the local bar and brought a different women home every single night? What if all he wanted from her was a physical relationship with no strings attached? What if he wanted strings, but not the physical? What if all they ever did was fight? What if he wanted to go back to conning people for a living? What if he decided to get married again to somebody who wasn’t her?

“It doesn’t matter what you do,” she replied, playing with his fingers. “I’m still not going to leave. The only thing that will _ever_ get me to leave is if one of us dies first.”

“What if—”

Lisbon looked at him, her green eyes unblinking. “ _Don’t_ even finish that question, Patrick Jane! You know as well as I do that you wouldn’t _think_ about hitting me, not even for a second. I’m tired of your questions, Jane. Just accept the fact that one way or the other, for better or for worst you are stuck with me forever.”

“It goes both ways,” Jane reminded her. “If you stay, you’re stuck with me for the rest of your life.”

“Yes,” she said, looking happier than she should at the prospect. “I know.”

“And you don’t mind?” he asked, frowning at her.

Lisbon turned and studied him for a second before leaning in and brushing a whisper of a kiss on his lips. She lowered her voice just a notch, “I know that maybe I should mind. That maybe I should be running in the other direction while I still have the chance. But I just can’t seem to bring myself to mind one bit. I can’t bring myself to run away.”

Realization dawned on Jane, filling him with a sense of awe and dread all at the same time. “You love me. Don’t you?”

Lisbon ghosted her left thumb over his lips and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I do. Do you want to do something about it?”

“Do _you_ want me to do something about it?” Jane replied.

“Maybe. . . just love me back,” Lisbon said tentatively. _“Please.”_

“Teresa. . .” he trailed off, hating himself as his resolve to get rid of her weakened by epic proportions.

She swallowed and moved her thumb to his cheek, to his jaw, to his ear. “Are you going to try and send me away again, Patrick? Are you going to ask me another stupid _what if_?”

“I _should_ ,” he said, reaching up for her hand and stopping her tender assault of his face, holding onto it tightly. “I shouldn’t be so selfish to keep you with me forever. Not when there must be somebody out there who’s a million times better for you than me.”

Lisbon looked at him hopefully. “Please tell me that this whole time you’ve only been pretending to want me to leave.”

Jane was the one to lean in and kiss _her_ this time. It was deeper than the shy, tentative caress that she’d given him. It was his way of answering her question without words, because he couldn’t bring himself to say yes verbally.

When he pulled away, she was smiling at him, her eyes glowing in the early morning sun. He returned her smile, threaded his fingers through her hair and rested his forehead on her’s, unable to resist her anymore.

A dozen more _what ifs_ entered his mind, each one about a brighter future that actually had Lisbon in this time. They were a dozen _what ifs_ that he didn’t have to ask, because he already had the answers to them.

She was going to stay.

And he was going to love her.

 


End file.
